Wednesday 16 June 2021

Balsam Bashing Saturday

 Sean O'Donoghue is organising a day of pulling the invasive Himalayan Balsam from the banks of the Wye.  Left to itself, it swamps native plants.

Anyone interested in volunteering should contact Sean on seanonwye@gmail.com

The group will be meeting at the entrance to the Warren at 10am on Saturday 10th July (that's the gate at the end of the lane).

Himalayan Balsam is pretty easy to pull - it doesn't have a strong root system.

So the Warren should be looking its best for another event on Wednesday 14th July, when the Walking With The Wye pilgrimage reaches Hay.  A day of celebration is planned, from 10am to 4pm, with the Shantymen singing, poetry and a picnic.

[Edited to add: The water should arrive at the Warren at about 5pm, with the celebrations going on until 6.45pm, when the event will move to the Globe for a screening of Rivercide and more music and poetry].

On Thursday 15th July the bottle of water, which is being carried from the source of the Wye to where the Wye meets the Severn estuary, will be handed over to the next group of walkers at Hay Market, from 10.30am.  There will also be a citizen science demonstration - volunteers are sampling the water to find out how polluted the river is.

It's a shame that this sort of thing has to be carried out by volunteers when the national bodies which are supposed to look after the rivers  don't seem to be doing this.  Whatever happened to the investigation into the pollution event at Glasbury, for instance?

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